We asked, you answered. What are your least favorite marketing jargon terms? Sourced from our loyal community on LinkedIn, hosts Devin Bramhall and Margaret Kelsey discuss some of the most used marketing terms in the industry today, challenging marketers and executives to move beyond “strategic” and “evergreen” as descriptors of your efforts. And in Devin’s own words, “Say what you actually mean.”But don’t worry, Devin and Margaret know they aren’t exempt from this industry-wide communication plague. Margaret offers up some of her most-used buzzwords, and they work together to break down what she’s trying to convey when she says “sexy” in a business strategy context. They also dive into why content is their top do-not-say word and how these words become almost meaningless. Listen in for:Ways to communicate beyond overused buzzwordsWhy prioritizing people-first content moves us away from buzzword trends and into a more authentic marketing industryHot takes and listener submissions to make you laugh about the terms we’ve come to hear too oftenSubscribe to our newsletter for bonus content: https://dontsaycontent.substack.com/Created in partnership with Share Your GeniusAn award-winning podcast production company working with the largest B2B brands to drive engagement, and retention: https://www.shareyourgenius.com/Amplified by CastedPodcast and video marketing platform for B2B brands to grow their audience and impact the bottom line: https://www.casted.us/Marketing by Kristina CarsonDigital marketing and social media expert. https://www.kristinacarson.com/

We’re back for season 3 with a topic sent in by a listener: the relationship between sales and marketing.Fraught relationship or not, there is so much opportunity and growth when these teams are aligned. So why is it so hard to make that happen?Devin and Margaret challenge leaders to bridge the communication gap with their sales counterparts, and challenge marketers to gain an understanding of how to extract crucial customer information from sales conversations, build exclusive content offers that drive engagement, and collaborate effectively to achieve growth objectives. With thought-provoking discussions on the evolving landscape of account-based marketing, event strategies, and the importance of aligning goals and responsibilities, this episode leaves marketing leaders with plenty to ponder, including:Why marketing + sales have to be aligned from the top downThe power of effective marketing (dangling carrots) that sales can actually useIdeas for how marketing + sales can work together for real impactSubscribe to our newsletter for bonus content: https://dontsaycontent.substack.com/Created in partnership with Share Your GeniusAn award-winning podcast production company working with the largest B2B brands to drive engagement,and retention: https://www.shareyourgenius.com/Amplified by CastedPodcast and video marketing platform for B2B brands to grow their audience and impact the bottom line: https://www.casted.us/Marketing by Kristina CarsonDigital marketing and social media expert. https://www.kristinacarson.com/

In this bonus episode, Devin Bramhall and Margaret Kelsey sit down with Rachel Downey, CEO and Founder of Share Your Genius (their production company) to reflect back on how the podcast came to be, how transformative it has been for themselves and their personal brands, and how this podcast has helped move them past their fear.And don’t worry, there are some solid asides too. You won’t want to miss hearing about the episode that got cut. 😉Press play for a look back and a look forward in the world of Don’t Say Content and B2B podcasting.Connect with Rachel Downey: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachelelstsdowney/Listen to her podcast, Voicemails with Rachel: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/voicemails-with-rachel/id1648953137 Check out Share Your Genius: https://www.shareyourgenius.com/Connect with Devin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/devinbramhall/Connect with Margaret: https://www.linkedin.com/in/margaret-kelsey-104abba/Subscribe to our newsletter: https://dontsaycontent.substack.com/

We’re back with a bonus episode to hold you over until season 3 drops in September of 2023! What are your guesses for how many times our hosts Devin and Margaret said the word “content” during season 2? Hint, it’s over 50. 🤯Devin and Margaret reveal the total number and more in this episode, including teasing what’s coming up for season 3, reflecting on the original premise of Don’t Say Content, and sharing a few times where saying the word “content” was actually warranted (that might also double as a shame reel).Connect with Devin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/devinbramhall/Connect with Margaret: https://www.linkedin.com/in/margaret-kelsey-104abba/Subscribe to our newsletter: https://dontsaycontent.substack.com/Created in partnership with Share Your Genius: https://www.shareyourgenius.com/

Here’s a bonus episode where our host, Margaret Kelsey, joined Exit Five, hosted by Dave Gerhardt. Layoffs, budget cuts, slower sales cycles, and a lack of urgency to buy your product right now. That's become normal in B2B SaaS over the last two quarters. But what does it mean for marketer? Do nothing? Just play defense? Yeah right. Marketers are being asked to do more with less, and if you're one of those marketers this is a session you don't want to miss. Dave is joined by Margaret Kelsey (Founder of TatCo, Marketing Advisor), Jason Widup (VP Marketing, Metadata), and Shauntle Barley (Director of Marketing, Demandwell) to talk about the state of B2B marketing in Q2 2023 and helpful ideas for driving growth in a down economy. Listen to Exit Five: https://www.exitfive.com/podcastFollow Dave: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davegerhardt/Connect with Devin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/devinbramhall/Connect with Margaret: https://www.linkedin.com/in/margaret-kelsey-104abba/Subscribe to the Don’t Say Content newsletter: https://dontsaycontent.substack.com/Created in partnership with Share Your Genius: https://www.shareyourgenius.com/

The relationship between Founders/CEOs and their heads of marketing is broken. The Boss doesn’t understand how marketing works, so they micromanage their marketing leaders into poor performance. Marketing leaders struggle to communicate value because much of their work isn’t tied directly to revenue and they don’t always know how to speak to the business metrics and challenges that matter to The Boss. This tension at the executive level leads to wasted money, slowed company growth, and more recently: record CMO turnover in 2023 and a stagnation in B2B Marketing strategy (and efficacy) due to a hamster wheel of starting from scratch. In this episode, Devin and Margaret share stories from their experiences working with founders/CEOs in-house and agency-side over the last decade. Some bigger themes they cover are:The importance of shared language and understanding of metricsHow communication and trust impact the CEO/head of marketing relationshipThe balance between brand and funnel-building initiativesWhy CEOs and founders should step back from leading marketing departmentsPlus Devin shares what she learned from being CEO and working with her marketing team, as well as anonymous stories from their clients (you know it’s juicy when Devin and Margaret aren’t sharing names). The spicy takes are abundant in this one—proceed with caution. 😉We’re sending off season 2 with a bang. We’ll be back in September 2023!Connect with Devin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/devinbramhall/Connect with Margaret: https://www.linkedin.com/in/margaret-kelsey-104abba/Subscribe to our newsletter: https://dontsaycontent.substack.com/Created in partnership with Share Your Genius: https://www.shareyourgenius.com/Sponsored by Ahrefs: https://ahrefs.com/

Have you ever had one of those days where you just don't feel like doing anything? Or maybe a deadline is looming, but it's not quite here yet, so you're putting it off? You just can’t seem to make your brain do what it needs to?Devin and Margaret jump into their shared insights into what motivates them and how they tackle obstacles to rise above the pernicious "shoulds" in their life. The act of inventory-ing the “shoulds” and deciding what is actually key to forward progress is crucial. We call this ruthless prioritization (or as we’ve called it in the past, killing your darlings). Identifying the 20% of work that delivers 80% of the results is essential and cutting out anything that aligns differently from your priorities. Get their personal stories on how leadership can craft a more helpful work structure to maximize motivation and the importance of building trust with your leaders to make that happen. Devin shares a hysterical college story about procrastinating until she had a spark of inspiration. You won’t want to miss this one.Connect with Devin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/devinbramhall/Connect with Margaret: https://www.linkedin.com/in/margaret-kelsey-104abba/Subscribe to our newsletter: https://dontsaycontent.substack.com/Created in partnership with Share Your Genius: https://www.shareyourgenius.com/Sponsored by Ahrefs: https://ahrefs.com/

The Year is 2014. The article title is 7 Tips For Cooking The Perfect Marry-Me Chicken. You wade past the thick veil of misogyny, but the stench of grifting just won’t go away. The first tip is to Check Your Local Grocery Store For Sales, with an affiliate link listing nearby sale produce.Flash forward to 2023. You’re scrolling through LinkedIn and belligerent posts about AI flood your feed. You search for the earnest, meaningful comment furthering the conversation, but all you see are grifters masquerading as “thought leaders”, piling onto the conversation like those zombies climbing over the wall in World War Z.In the early 2010s, the listicle had a chokehold on the way we wrote content for the Internet. Add all the keywords, the affiliate links, and make them spend MORE time on page.Today, in the era of trending audios and runaway LinkedIn virality, it seems like the Internet not only wants but NEEDS your griftiest ideas. But even at the mercy of The Algorithm, there’s an authenticity that you can see and feel in good writers and creators even while executing the trendiest of trends. We’re not really sure how you’ll like this episode, but we hope it starts an honest conversation.See you on LinkedIn?Connect with Devin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/devinbramhall/Connect with Margaret: https://www.linkedin.com/in/margaret-kelsey-104abba/Subscribe to our newsletter: https://dontsaycontent.substack.com/Created in partnership with Share Your Genius: https://www.shareyourgenius.com/Sponsored by Ahrefs: https://ahrefs.com/ 

The market has rapidly evolved over the last few years. What worked 5 years ago isn’t working as well as it used to, and we’re seeing signs of more “traditional marketing” fading into the background in the B2B space. So what can we do to increase our chances of success? Where is the future of content headed?Our hosts, Devin Bramhall and Margaret Kelsey dive into their thoughts on what is working currently, how we can all capitalize on technology and existing marketing tactics, and where the future of content is going.Here’s a quick hit of their takeaways:Focus on personal brands and insights attached to lived experiences. Create authentic and relatable content that speaks to the experiences of your target audience. Use your own personal story and expertise to add value. Future-proof your ideas and solutions. Create content that will continue to be relevant even as the market changes. Use a media-first strategy to publish your content on a variety of platforms through a variety of people. Now is the time to experiment. We’re moving away from an owned audience approach—lean into building out channel-specific content to really connect with your audience on their chosen platform.Connect with Devin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/devinbramhall/Connect with Margaret: https://www.linkedin.com/in/margaret-kelsey-104abba/Subscribe to our newsletter: https://dontsaycontent.substack.com/Created in partnership with Share Your Genius: https://www.shareyourgenius.com/Sponsored by Ahrefs: https://ahrefs.com/ 

The People-First movement in workplace culture has risen in popularity over the past several years and ushered in the concept of bringing your “whole self” to work. It aims to prioritize the well-being and satisfaction of employees. But does bringing your whole self to work truly benefit you and your colleagues? And do you truly want *everyone* to bring their whole self? Your boss, your CEO, etc - does it make you feel more safe knowing every part of everyone at the company? Several challenges arise when whole self to work:Unrealistic expectationsIncreased entitlementLack of accountabilityInequity and divisionDecision-making challengesAs our hosts Margaret Kelsey and Devin Bramhall dive into the people-first movement, they explore what policies actually put employees first, what amount of transparency is too much, how leaders influence the people-first movement, and how all of this is impacted by the remote and hybrid work environments that are much more common today. One thing they know for sure? Choosing to bring your best self to work each day is your best bet for your career growth. Connect with Devin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/devinbramhall/Connect with Margaret: https://www.linkedin.com/in/margaret-kelsey-104abba/Subscribe to our newsletter: https://dontsaycontent.substack.com/Created in partnership with Share Your Genius: https://www.shareyourgenius.com/Sponsored by Ahrefs: https://ahrefs.com/